Last updated 1/23/2012
Changelog:
- Spoiler:
-4pt10 has been fixed. Sorta. Still kinda bugged. It's still probably BiS though.
-Added a link to an explanation on ArP. Everyone should read this.
-Tested and confirmed a bug with hit (check notes for more info)
-Added and verified a bug with damage (check notes for more info)
-Updated notes section, added Changelog
-Added BIS lists (note that 4pt10 is bugged and not actually BIS)
-Added enchants section, updated notes, fixed grammatical/spelling mistakes.
Talents:MANDATORY TALENTS:These are talents that you will be taking no matter what, these are non-negotiable.
These really require no explanation at all. They are very clear DPS increases that define the Fury Warrior.
Improved Heroic Strike(3/3)
Impale (2/2)
Deep Wounds (3/3)
Two Handed Weapon Specialization (3/3)
Armored to the Teeth (3/3)
Cruelty (5/5)
Dual Wield Specialization (5/5)
Death Wish (1/1)
Flurry (5/5)
Bloodthirst (1/1)
Improved Whirlwind (2/2)
Improved Berserker stance (5/5)
Rampage (1/1)
Bloodsurge (3/3)
Unending Fury (5/5)
Titan's Grip (1/1)
OPTIONAL TALENTS:These are pretty much everything else, most of them are filler talents. I'm going to say why you should or shouldn't get them. A lot of these talents are bad, but can be useful in some situations.
Deflection - This is pure filler. It doesn't increase your DPS at all and only benefits you when you pull aggro and even then it's only a 1-5% chance to survive a melee attack. I usually take 2/5 points in this.
Improved Rend - More filler, but does provide a slight DPS increase on some fights, I put 2/2 into it. If you plan on rend dancing this is mandatory. I personally don't rend dance, but I'll go into that later.
Iron Will - Fairly useless. Very few boss fights where you get stunned and it's only good on a few of them.
Tactical Mastery - Has synergy with Improved Rend. That extra 15 rage is what allows you to switch stances and get a rend or another ability off. I put 3/3 in it.
Anger Management - It's an okay talent, it doesn't amount to much rage but it can help get that ability off. Also with the combat bug on Magic-WoW it is possible to start a fight with 100/100 rage, or even to use Commanding/Battle shout without having to use Bloodrage. I put 1/1 point in it, mainly because of that last point.
Booming Voice - Helps with shouts, but with Paladin buffs, the only shouts you might be using are Commanding or Demoralizing.
Unbridled Wrath - I take it as filler. Extra rage is always handy. I put 4/5 in it. If I took that fifth point out of Anger Management and put it here it would generate more rage during a fight, but I like Anger Management's pre-fight utility more.
Improved Cleave - Very handy on any fight that needs AoE. I would highly recommend it and considering the previous choices for talents, there isn't a really good reason to not take it unless you want better shouts. I put 3/3 in it.
Piercing Howl - It can be handy for slowing mobs that you can't get close to for Hamstring. Personally I never use it, it's very situational.
Blood Craze - Can keep you alive if you pull aggro, but most likely won't. Pretty much useless.
Commanding Presence - If you really need that extra health or AP from shouts go for it. I wouldn't really recommend it.
Improved Execute - I personally never use Execute. I find it hard to fit into my rotation properly due to the massive rage loss. Considering execute is only used for the last 20% this talent isn't as great as it looks
Enrage - 30% chance when you take damage to gain a 10% damage bonus for 12 seconds. 1) You shouldn't be taking damage as DPS. 2) Only a 30% chance to proc. That said, I put 5/5 in it. You WILL take damage and it WILL proc during a fight. Unless you are amazing at dodging coldflame and slime pools, you are going to proc this at some point. Just don't go trying to get yourself hit to proc it, it is only 30% chance. Precision is a bigger DPS increase if you're under the hit cap.
Precision - 3% increased chance to hit. If you're below the hit cap this is fairly mandatory. 3% is a lot to gem for, and this might be your only option. I wouldn't recommend this if you're above the hit cap though.
Improved Intercept - If you need movement, here it is. Not really needed.
Improved Berserker Rage - 20 rage with 2 points in it. Can be okay when rage starved, but it does consume a GCD. The only time this was really good was when it was bugged and you gained rage whenever you gained a buff.
Intensify Rage - Fairly mandatory. If you don't need the 3 points in Precision, put them here. I might even argue that this is a bigger DPS increase than Enrage. Turns your main DPS cooldown into 2 minutes instead of 3, allowing more leeway with it to line up with Heroism, or to use it more often. I put 3/3 in it.
Furious Attacks - If there is a boss that heals, this is a good talent to have. Only one point is really needed in it, it procs often enough. For ToC Anub, this isn't a bad talent to have.
Heroic Fury - Mostly a PVP talent. Also provides some mobility in fights. Not really recommended.
Improved Bloodrage - This is the one talent in the prot tree that looks interesting. There will only be one point left over after going down to Titan's Grip and Two Handed Weapon Specialization when all Mandatory talents have been maxed and 1/2 Improved Bloodrage generates less rage than Anger Management.
So once you've gotten your build all set it will look something like 18/53/0. Or like mine. 19/52/0
GLPYHS:Mandatory Major Glyphs: Glyph of Heroic Strike - You gain 10 rage when you crit with HS.
Glyph of Whirlwind - Reduces cooldown by 2 seconds.
Optional Major Glyphs:Glyph of Cleave - Cleave hits a third target. Very good to have, especially with improved cleave. I take this one.
Glyph of Execution - Execute does more damage. If you went with Improved execute, this is good to pick up.
Glyph of Victory Rush - 30% increased crit chance with Victory Rush, there are better options like the two listed above.
Glyph of Bloodthirst - Extra healing, good for soloing older content. Other than that, not great.
Minor Glyphs:Glyph of Bloodrage - Bloodrage costs no health. Great to have since it allows you to use the ability at any time. I use this.
Glyph of Enduring Victory - increases victory rushes usable window. It’s okay, but not that useful.
Glyph of Command - Increases duration of commanding shout. Not that useful, but there are no good minor glyphs. I use it.
Glyph of Battle - Increases duration of battle shout. Like Glyph of Command, it's not great, but I use it.
STATS: Hit: This is the most important stat for any DPS including warriors. If you are missing 1% hit you will be doing 1% less DPS as 1% of all your attacks will miss. The hit cap is 8% for yellows (abilities) and for single wielding. Since fury warriors duel wield the cap is 27% against a level 83 boss for white hits AKA Auto-attacks. 27% is a ridiculous amount to achieve and should never be an objective, but unlike other DPS we still gain DPS from hit even after the 8% cap. Hit will increase the number of auto attacks that hit, and through that, our rage generation.
ArP: This stat should be the priority for obtaining. It should be on the majority of your gear as well as gems. This depends on whether you are softcapping or hardcapping ArP though. Hardcapped means that you have 100% (1400 rating) with no procs from trinkets or enchants. Softcapped means that with a trinket proc you will reach 100%. There are three trinkets which have an ArP proc, Grim Toll from Naxxramas, Moljnir Runestone from Ulduar, and Needle Encrusted Scorpion from the ICC 5 mans. With a new character you should be softcapped or at least VERY close after running the ToC and ICC 5 mans and having obtained Needle Encrusted Scorpion.
Please be aware that 100% ArP does not mean that 100% of the Bosses armor is gone. Sunder Armor, Faerie Fire, and other armor reducing abilities still increase your DPS.
Please note that any ArP over 1400 is wasted. That means if you are sitting at 1387 and need 13 more ArP to be capped, it's a bigger DPS increase to use a 20 strength gem over what is essentially a 13 ArP gem. When you're 14 or more from the cap it's a bigger DPS increase to use an ArP gem.
Strength: This is our primary stat and will be on most of our gear. It's pretty straightforward and requires no explanation. More strength allows you to hit harder.
Crit: Like strength, it's a basic stat that is found on most gear.
Agility: Point for point, agility is very close in value to crit, and becomes closer in value with a BoK. This is by far not a bad stat, while it is not our strongest, it is still valuable and allows leather gear to be useful. Don't be afraid of leather, or even mail to a lesser extent.
Haste: One of our weaker stats. It still provides a bit of DPS and synergy with rage generation and faster heroic strikes. I wouldn't gem for it but like Agility, don't disregard an item just because it has haste on it.
Attack Power: One point of strength gives two points of Attack power, but two points of AP are not equal to one point of strength due to strength scaling with BoK, BoS, and Improved Berserker Stance. This is found on all leather gear and most enchants.
Armor: 108 points of Armor give 3 AP through the talent Armored to the Teeth. That means armor buffs like Devotion Aura give around 50 AP, or roughly the same bonus as a 20 strength gem.
Expertise: This is a stat like hit. It affects a bosses chance to dodge and parry your attacks. Like hit is very valuable, on retail. Bosses don't dodge or parry on magic, so this stat is completely worthless and will increase your DPS by a big fat ZERO. Try to avoid this stat completely. Any item that has expertise on it is effectively underbudget, that includes Glorenzelg. All DPS simulators like Rawr and Landsoul's Spreadsheet count expertise as a very valuable stat and will recommend items that aren't good on Magic-WoW. I would recommend manually editing your stats in these simulators so that you are at or above the expertise cap.
Stamina/Spirit/Spellpower/Mp5/Intellect: Don't affect our DPS at all.
Gear: Understanding itemization is what I believe to be a very important part of playing any class. The higher the ilvl of a piece of gear, the more stats it has on it, but these stats are not equal, some boost our DPS more than others, and some don't boost our DPS at all. The value of these stats change with your gear. An item may be on the Best-in-slot list, but that doesn't mean you should get it right away. It can be a DPS loss depending on your current gear, especially when dealing with stats that have caps, such as hit and ArP. For example the t10 gloves are BiS, but if you're already hit capped and don't have other pieces of t10, it can be a big loss in DPS to wear those gloves right away.
There are a few addons, and DPS simulators which can help you with choosing gear which I will go into at the end. I use these tools extensively to maximize my DPS with the gear currently available.
EnchantsHead: Arcanum of Torment
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Back: Major Agility
Chest: Power Stats
Wrists: Greater Assault
Hands: Crusher
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
Boots: Icewalker
Main Hand: Berserking
Off Hand: Massacre
Mongoose and Executioner are okay, but from what I've seen in DPS simulators and in raids with other warriors they are not as good as Berserking/Massacre. The only time Executioner is okay is when you are far below the ArP cap.
If Berserking ever gets fixed to stack like it does on retail then dual berserking should be best. I would not count on it though, as the bug has existed since the beginning of Magic-WoW.
Also remember that profession enchants always beat out the default enchants.
PROFESSIONS:Blacksmithing: With this profession you gain an extra socket on your Gloves and Wrists. This is the most versatile profession bonus as it allows you to gem for ArP to more easily reach the cap instead of just a 40 strength or 80 AP increase.
Jewelcrafting: Jewelcrafting actually has the best profession bonus stat wise. Jewelcrafers gain 3 special gems made from Dragon's Eye gems. Each one has 14 more stats on it over a regular gem, meaning a total bonus of 42 instead of the regular 40 of other professions. Highly recommended profession.
Engineering: The bonuses of this profession aren't as clear as others. It has a lot of utility through Scrapbots, Jeeves, and MoLL-E for purchasing reagents, repairing, and even accessing your bank and mailbox while in a raid. The bombs are also fairly useful in raids and can give you a slight DPS boost.
Engineering also has special enchants for the profession:
BACK: 23 Agility vs. 22 Agility.
BOOTS: 24 Crit vs. 12 crit/12 hit.
HANDS: 340 Haste for 12 seconds on a 1 min CD vs. 44 AP.
HANDS: 1654-2020 damage on a 45 second CD vs 44 AP.
Leatherworking: A wrist enchant for 130 AP, 80 more than the standard enchant.
Alchemy: You gain a special reusable flask that increases your main stat (int/str/agi) by 40. This is to match it up with other profession's 40 stat bonus. This flask is not usable alongside other flasks, so alchemists also have Mixology which grants you double duration on Flasks as well as an increase to that flask's stat buff to bring it in line with the other profession buffs.
Enchanting: Gives two 40 AP enchants to your rings for a total of 80 AP.
Inscription: Shoulder enchant for 120 AP and 15 crit, once again, an 80 AP increase.
Tailoring: This profession gives you a back enchant which gives you a 45% chance to proc a 400 AP bonus. This comes out to around 80 AP depending on when it procs.
Skinning: Mastery of Anatomy gives you 40 Crit.
Mining: 60 stamina, not a great bonus as far as DPS goes.
Herbalism: Lifeblood, a quick and dirty heal similar to the Draenei racial.
Personally I use Engineering and Jewelcrafting, but Blacksmithing is also a very solid choice.
RACE: Humans: Don't bring much to the PVE table for Fury Warriors, the increased expertise would be good on retail, but no on Magic-WoW. Increased Rep gains will help when farming for the Ashen Verdict exalted ring, and the racial helps on some fights like Icehowl.
Night Elves: 2% chance to be missed gives you that extra 2% chance to survive a boss melee hit, and Shadowmeld is great because of the combat bug on Magic-WoW. Shadowmeld can have some good synergy with the engineering knife that has a chance to res someone.
Dwarves: Stoneform gives armor and removes bleeds. That armor will give AP through the Armored to the Teeth talent but in general it is a very weak race for Fury warriors.
Gnomes: Bring nothing to the table that helps with DPS.
Draenei: The 1% extra hit is what I would consider one of the strongest racials for the Fury warrior. It gives a lot of extra leeway in getting to that hit cap especially in the early game, and gives that aura to everyone in your group. Even after obtaining the 8% just from gear that 1% extra hit will help very slightly with auto attacks. The minor heal can also help with survivability.
I would recommend either the Draenei or Night elf race. Draenei have the best racial for DPS, but the Night elf Shadowmeld is very handy because of the infamous combat bug. Note that if you take the talent Anger Management the combat bugs works to your advantage by letting you start a fight with 100 rage.
ROTATION: Whirlwind then Bloodthirst. Heroic strike should be used when over 60 rage until you get the hang of it. Heroic strike can be used when you have very little rage if you have enough time to generate more before Bloodthirst or Whirlwind come off cooldown. This is more of a feel thing, as you play your warrior more you will get the hang of when you are supposed to heroic strike.
Slam should be mixed into the empty GCDs when the talent Bloodsurge procs. Sunder Armor should also be mixed into your empty GCDs to increase your DPS and the DPS of the raid.
Death Wish should be popped on cooldown or close to it and should be timed with Heroisms and burn periods. Also mix in heroic throws and Recklessness. There is also shattering throw which can be a handy DPS increase for the raid, although it is a personal DPS loss. Shattering throw can be used safely without a DPS loss at the start of a fight while you are waiting for the tank to get aggro, or during Marrowgar's Bone Storm.
ADDONS: Recount/Skada: DPS meters are a great way to judge your performance or test gear/rotation or anything else that you may want to have a look at. They are also good to see how you compare to
other warriors.
RatingBuster: One of my favorite addons, it details the stat gain between your equipped piece of gear and another piece. While Blizzard has added this functionality since the Addon came out, RatingBuster is still useful as it will also break down the percentage increase on stats like Crit/Agility/ArP so it's not just a flat rating.
Quartz: An amazing addon with a lot of customization that will display ability cooldowns, buffs/debuffs, cast bars and more. While this addon can take some time to setup it is very nice.
OmniCC: A highly customizable cooldown addon, good for timing abilities.
Bartender/Dominoes: Bar addons are always great to have, and I would suggest them for any class including Fury warriors. Personally I use Bartender, but Dominoes is also good.
Omen: Required. Not just for the guild, but for any warrior. I know you can see threat on the boss picture, but Omen gives so much more data on threat it is unbelievable. I always have this open while DPSing.
DeadlyBossMods: Very very handy. Being able to hear a sound when I need to run or get directions on the fly is part of DPSing. You can't do damage if you're dead.
XPerl/PitBull: Unit Frames are great for positioning those frames so you can more easily see your rage. A lot of DPSing is knowing how much rage you have for the next few abilities in your rotation, not just having enough for the one ability now. I wouldn't use a slam if it would put me too low for Whirlwind. While most people, including me use XPerl, I found Pitbull to be a lot more customizable, although it uses a lot more memory and does take some time to set up. There are some other addons that give you info about health/rage like IceHud and some others. I found a lot of them didn't update as fast as the full-fledged Unit Frames like the two listed. Look around and experiment for what suits you.
Bison: This addon gives a bit more UI customization by allowing me to move around my buff/debuff bars. It also has a bar for procs like Bloodsurge for Slam. When I get a Bloodsurge proc a Slam icon pops up above my action bars telling me that I can use it instead of having to watch the top left/right corners for the buff.
NOTES: Don't forget about abilities in other stances. A macro to switch to defensive stance, pop a shield on and use shield wall can save your life. The one problem is that macros have problems equipping that two hander back into your off hand so you will have to do it manually but that DPS loss is still better than dying and doing nothing.
The battle stance ability Retaliation works on Marrowgar's Bone Storm. Depending on the length of the fight you may be able to pop it twice and do some nice damage during Bone Storm.
Rend is also a nice ability to continually do damage. While there is such a thing as rend dancing where you switch between Berserker and Battle during empty GCDs to get that extra damage in, I find it hard to pull off effectively. Often after switching back to Berserker I don't have enough rage to continue my rotation. It is theoretically a DPS increase, so experiment.
Personally I use Rend on fights where I have to switch off the boss, think Marrowgar during Bonestorm or Lady DeathWhisper when switching to mobs.
Bloodrage is a great ability; it gives a great boost of rage and is off the GCD. Use it whenever you need to, it has a short CD when talented into Intensify Rage.
Even though Saurfang's adds take reduced damage from AoE, they will take full damage from a cleave. Use it on Saurfang to take down adds more quickly.
The blue gem Nightmare Tear is great. It gives 10 strength and 10 agility which means it is essentially a 10 str/10 crit gem that fits in a blue slot. I use this in my Cryptmaker to grab the 8 strength socket bonus. It is actually a DPS increase to do this over filling it with 3x20 strength gems.
2pt9 (Berserker stance grants an additional 2% crit) still works if you are not wearing it. It took a while for them to fix it so it actually worked, and now that it is fixed it works too well. Equip 2pt9 and switch stances out of and then back to Berserker stance, then feel free to re-equip your normal gear with an additional 2% crit. You lose this additional crit upon switching stances, dying or relogging. Basically any circumstance that would require the game reapply the stance buff.
Titan's Grip and equip macros are negatively bugged. When you equip both weapons at the same time (such as with the equipment manager or a macro) it applies the 10% damage reduction twice, so you get 20% damage reduction. To fix this take off both weapons and re-equip them one at a time. If this doesn't fix it, try equipping a one hander then your two handers. Screenshot of this happening and the fix.
EDIT: It seems to reduce damage down by 20% but adds damage to the base to bring it to the same tooltip DPS as can be seen in the screenshot and through verifying ingame. I'm unsure of how, or if this affects actual DPS.
EDIT2: After some ingame DPS tests when it displayed 86% it did roughly 10% less damage on all abilities than when 96% was displayed. Auto attacks were roughly the same and can be assumed to be unaffected. Which the above screenshot seems to reflect with the tooltip DPS being the same.
Do PLEASE check that you are not bugged in this way before starting a fight.
We get 2% hit for free, this is on both abilities and melee. So don't worry about trying to meet the hit cap, you have quite a bit of leeway.
OTHER THINGS:Rawr:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (look for version 2.3.22)
Landsoul's Spreadsheet: The 3.3.5 version is no longer available. I can upload it to RapidShare or MegaUpload if someone wants it. Note that you do need Microsoft Excel in order to use it.
These two items are great for finding items to wear and knowing what to pick up next. Rawr is automated but I find makes a few mistakes, Landsoul's spreadsheet takes more work but I find it to be pretty accurate, there are some things to note when using these. Expertise is valuable on retail, so all item recommendations will have expertise on them. Landsoul's Spreadsheet will let you manually add in as much expertise as you need; on Rawr I edit an item to have expertise on it, such as the Ashen Verdict ring.
Landsoul also got an item in ICC named after him for the work he did creating the spreadsheet.
I found this explanation on ArP that is a very good read. I suggest anyone who wants to understand how ArP works to read this. Demystifying Armor Penetration. Also note that this explains why using Sunder Armor and Faerie Fire increase DPS even with 100% ArP.
Subject: Skray's Magic-WoW Warrior Guide 
Wed Dec 28 2011, 20:24
